Grand Rapids Griffins president Tim Gortsema adds a few more nuggets of wisdom regarding the AHL’s 2020-2021 season as the Griffins will experience it in a conversation with the Grand Rapids Press’s Steve Kaminski:
The Griffins, who are the Detroit Red Wings affiliate, will compete in the Central Division with Chicago, Cleveland, Iowa, Rockford and Texas. Gortsema said the season schedule is expected to be hammered out in the days to come, with the regular season concluding May 16.
“Today was about approving who’s in and who’s out for the hockey season,” Gortsema said. “Starting as early as tomorrow, the league will begin the process of distributing a schedule grid, which is for each team and who you play and how many games. I think what you will see a lot of this year is that the play will be largely divisional with the goal of keeping teams close geographically in terms of opponents and who they play. We don’t know how many games we will play until we get the grid tomorrow, but we are thinking it will be between 30 to 34 games total.”
It remains to be seen how many fans will be permitted in attendance. Gortsema reported that the current Michigan Department of Health and Human Services allow for 20 percent of an arena’s fixed seating capacity up to 250 spectators.
“In our case, that is almost nothing in an 11,000-seat facility,” Gortsema said. “It’s to be determined whether that gets relaxed or not. Hockey is such a terrific sport and a better sport in person. You can see the speed and the size and the skill level so much better in person than a TV or any kind of broadcast. We are optimistic of getting fans back into the arena, and the sooner we can do so, the better.”
